Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Occupational Hazard

'Analytics' was never a domain , that I could imagine being so closely associated with. But now,the way it happens that it happens to be a way, a way of life I mean.

Moving on, I was trying to figure out, what effect such a profession has on one's thinking procedures. 

First things first, you're less a person of opinions, and more a person of facts. It's intriguing, how 'data' becomes such an important aspect of one's professional existence, that one wouldn't buy a brown bread without a rough number crunching of how the brand has been doing in recent times. 

You know you're catching up fast as an analyst, when the question : Are there any more insights to be drawn?, comes to you more often that not ,and you know you're 'one-a-dem', when you wouldn't comment on anything , unless it was backed by some 'solid' data. 

In the world of analytics, the convention is to ask : Do your numbers back you? I can't see any other occupation, where 'numbers' are metaphorized to be living organisms of such critical importance. 


After a certain threshold, you tend to regard them as your pets, which you'd want to groom and make look presentable. The 'grooming' part is what could be termed an 'analysis'. 

When you try and look into the cause-effect of such a change, you tend to realise, that it wouldn't have been any different if you were a consultant, or a manager, or even a personal assistant for that matter. There is always and I mean always, a certain overlap of personal and professional persona , which sometimes one can't help, and sometimes one doesn't want to. Occupational Hazards , as I've come to call it.